Cisco Spark Business Messaging

What is business messaging?

“Team collaboration” is centered on the needs of the agile worker. These workers are operating in flatter, self-governed structures. They coalesce into teams with people inside and outside an organization, and work with those colleagues from anywhere. They often break down organization silos and hierarchies, and move faster than the pace of their company as a whole. The right team collaboration tools help them react faster, complete deadlines more quickly, and juggle multiple projects simultaneously.

Cisco Spark message addresses the needs of both the agile worker and IT teams looking to provide relevant solutions securely and reliably. The mobile-first messaging experience centers on secure virtual spaces, called Cisco Spark rooms, for teams and one-to-one interactions where discussion, decision making, and work get done. These spaces are multipurpose, fully searchable, and accessible from any device, anytime, anywhere. Teams send messages, share files, and integrate with the other tools and business processes they need. Conversation is easily elevated to a video call or face-to-face meeting with one click. End-to-end encryption secures all messages and files sent within the application and, when needed, you can assign moderators to control access to virtual spaces.

Key Benefits of Cisco Spark Message Capabilities

Increase productivity when teamwork is streamlined and searchable in one place.

Build stronger relationships with messaging as the new baseline for business interactions.

Be more efficient in meetings when the whole team is already caught up on the latest thinking.

Make decisions faster when you are just a tap away from anyone, on any device.

Access all Cisco Spark capabilities including meeting and call with one, simple interface.

Cisco Spark Business Messaging Features

Feature

Description

Content preview

You can preview files and documents posted to Cisco Spark easily from any device.

Content upload from mobile

You can upload files saved in cloud storage services from mobile devices.

Search

You can search all messages, content, people, and spaces.

@Mentions

This feature enables you to direct a message or question to a specific team member. The mentioned team member receives a notification and
the message appears in the member’s mentions list.

Filters

Filters make it easy to find relevant conversations.

Notifications

You receive notifications on all the devices you use for Cisco Spark every time a message is posted to a room you have marked important or
a room in which you are mentioned, you are added to a conversation, or you receive a call.

Security and encryption

The Cisco Spark service encrypts messages, files, and room names on your device before sending them to the cloud. Thus, content arrives at
our servers in encrypted form and is processed (data in use) and stored (data at rest) in its encrypted state until it is decrypted on the
intended recipients’ devices.

We use Secure HTTP (HTTPS) to encrypt data in transit between your device and our servers, protecting the identities of the senders and
receivers of the encrypted content.

We use Advanced Encryption Standard 256 (AES-256) for end-to-end content encryption and HTTPS for transport encryption.

Integrations

Cisco Spark provides three ways to connect to other tools and business processes: native integrations, app integration services, and the
developer portal.

Native integrations are configured within Cisco Spark itself and are the simplest for you to set up. Within a few clicks, teams can have
updates from external services posted in the same place where their team communications happen.

Connect Cisco Spark to almost any tool with app integration services from Built.io, Zapier, and IFTTT. These services make it easy to configure
automated connections between Cisco Spark and hundreds of other apps.

Organizations needing specialized connections use the Cisco Spark for Developers portal. This
site exposes Cisco Spark application programming interfaces (APIs) to developers to create custom integrations. You can use APIs alone or
in tandem to customize the way administrators and teams use Cisco Spark capabilities. Developers are provided with a 24-hour world-class
support desk powered by Tropo to answer questions and discuss ideas.

Moderation

When the teamwork is sensitive, you can lock rooms and assign moderators. Moderators have the sole ability to add or remove participants,
edit the room name, and delete anyone’s shared messages and files. Moderators can also assign co-moderators.

One-to-one and three-way video calling with screen sharing

Conduct basic one-to-one and three-way video calling from within the Cisco Spark app to other Cisco Spark users within your organization.
Users can easily to click to share their desktop to facilitate the conversation. If you need more calling features such as voicemail or
PSTN calling or if you need to meet with more than three people, you should use Cisco Spark meeting and call capabilities. See those
sections for details.